A senior North Korean diplomat will be allowed a rare visa to visit the US later this month, officials have said. The diplomat, Ri Gun, is the deputy negotiator in stalled talks on North Korea's nuclear programme. There have been recent moves to restart the talks.

One report said Mr Ri would attend a forum in California, while another said he was going to a meeting in New York. He is also expected to discuss the nuclear issue in an informal meeting with a senior US counterpart.

A joke to say the least. He will check things out but in the end the result will be the same. N. Korea will find a stupid excuse to bow out. Waste of time and money. What they say can't be trusted so why bother.

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North Korea still runs six prison camps holding 154,000 political prisoners, a South Korean lawmaker has said. Yoon Sang-hyun, of the ruling Grand National Party, said inmates worked long hours in return for meagre food rations, reported Yonhap news agency. Mr Yoon said he was basing his claims on a South Korean government report.

North Korea denies claims it abuses human rights. Earlier this year it amended its constitution to refer to its "respect" for human rights. But human rights groups and North Korean refugees describe blatant, widespread and ongoing violations of basic rights in the Stalinist country.

H*ll on earth is a good description. I would guess most don't last long. Under those conditions who could. Human Rights, that is a joke, they have no idea what it means or involves. They are probably lucky to see a slice of bread and cup of water a day. No doubt disease runs wild and medical help is non existant.

Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher radioTurn it up, turn it up, so you know, radio

Life is hard enough for the average North Korean and having to overlook authorities' tendency to spend money on their needs. But a recent currency rate change and a ban on foreign currency has unsettled citizens and now the army has orders to shoot people if they try to cross borders without permission.

December 24, 2009N.Korean Troops 'Ready to Shoot' After Currency Reform

The North Korean Army is on standby and ready to quell any protests against last week's drastic currency reform, Russian business daily Kommersant last Friday quoted diplomatic sources in North Korea as saying. The sources said authorities had ordered the Army to stand by as outrage grew in cities across the North, with critics describing the reform as daylight robbery.

North Koreans are panicking as all shops were ordered closed during the currency reform period and they can no longer use any money they have saved up. Foreign diplomats are meeting with North Korean authorities in efforts to persuade them to reverse the reform, the sources added. The North last week revalued the won at a rate of 100:1. http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/12/07/2009120700209.html

North Korea has accepted an offer of food aid from South Korea, officials in Seoul have announced. The offer of 10,000 tonnes of food was made in October, but no response has been given until now. It will be the first official aid since relations soured two years ago. The UN said last year the North was very short of food following a disastrous harvest. Meanwhile, a UN official said the North was handing out tougher punishments to citizens who tried to flee the country.

I would be surprised if any riots happened--any person consistently not getting enough food is only going to take risks at benefit to self when opportunity is at hand. Otherwise, too much energy expended without benefit (i.e. getting more food, getting across border) is not going to be worth the effort.

But the currency restrictions had to have hurt. And lunar New Year is one month away--that will be a date when people want to have special foods.

Many people in Japan are driven by a particular passion regardless of its financial merit, and for Ken Kato that passion is North Korean human rights and especially exposing the slush funds of the country's leader Kim Jong-il in overseas bank accounts. "I spend more time bringing public attention to the slush funds than I do on my job," says Kato (40), who is in the mail-order business.

Kato has since last year sent thousands of letters and e-mails to foreign governments and lawmakers asking them to investigate Kim's slush funds, which are believed to be stored in a bank in Luxembourg. His efforts began after reading the Jan. 2 issue of the Japanese magazine Aera, which interviewed a former South Korean intelligence official who said Kim transferred slush funds worth US$400 million from a Swiss bank account to another one in Luxembourg. http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/03/02/2010030200305.html

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Kim Jong-il 'Suffers Depression' North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is suffering from depression, according Ha Tae-keung, the head of Open Radio for North Korea.

"Kim gets angry and fretful so often that his aides don't dare to look him in the face when reporting to him," Ha claimed on Feb. 25. "He has also cut the number of on-the-spot guidance tours by less than half" so his third son and heir apparent Jong-un is undertaking them on his behalf.

Ha said Kim junior is being briefed by major agencies, while Pak Nam-gi, who has been dismissed from his post as the director of the Planning and Finance Department of the Workers Party for the recent bungled currency reform, has been replaced by a close aide to Kim Jong-un. "It seems that transition of power has been nearly completed," he added.

Do you remember how the US IRS agency was telling US ex-patriates to reveal their offshore accounts or risk getting taxbills for not paying their US taxes? The US was getting an agreement with UBS.

Well, the US is making an agreement with Liechenstein, where it is believed that North Korean's Kim Jong-Il has put money into accounts. Nothing hurts a shopping spree like a freeze on one's accounts. Maybe that is why North Korea is grousing about the US lately.

U.S. to Freeze Kim Jong-il's Secret Accounts in Liechtenstein The U.S. will freeze North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's overseas secret bank accounts based on a tip-off from a whistleblower at a state-run bank in Liechtenstein in 2006-2007.

Carter arrives in North KoreaThe former president hopes to win the release of an American convicted of entering the country illegally.

By John M. Glionna

August 25, 2010|4:21 a.m.

Reporting from Seoul — Arriving on a private jet with little fanfare, former President Jimmy Carter landed Wednesday in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on a mission to win the release of an American held by Kim Jong Il's isolationist regime.

Carter, his wife, Rosalyn, and his small party were met at the airport by top North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a terse report.

Mr. Gomes voluntarily entered North Korea? There are cameras to record former President Carter's arrival on the tarmac? Can we say "constructed image campaign" for 2010 in North Korea? Maybe all of this front page news activity featuring the country is to also diminish South Korea's ability to dominate news, as SK hosts the next G20 meeting on an island in November.

Even those blokes on the NK soccer team got trotted out for the public. There is no end to the ways to make NK seem strong.

It looks like the trip was successful. He will be stateside by the weekend.

How many more times will this happen before N. Korea says enough and keeps them for the entire sentence? When will it sink in that you will be caught and given the guest cell in their finest prison? Three high profile cases and yet there is probably someone out there that thinks they may be the one to bring N. Korea into the real world.